National Prayer Breakfast – Devotion, Decency, and Other Rare Guests – The Religious Renewal of the United States

At the National Prayer Breakfast, a long-standing gathering that is actually intended to serve religious reflection and bipartisan understanding, Donald Trump once again demonstrated how little room remains for restraint in his political communication. While still speaking about legislative initiatives, he suddenly turned to an internal party opponent and directly attacked Republican Congressman Thomas Massie. Trump stated that his party could almost completely unite behind him in votes, but that a single dissenter regularly prevented the desired outcome. About Massie, he said in substance that no matter which project was brought forward, that idiot would oppose it, that there was simply something wrong with him.

President Trump calls Thomas Massie an “idiot” at the National Prayer Breakfast. “There is something wrong with him. We call him Rand Paul Junior. He just likes to vote no.”

Massie belongs to the libertarian wing of the Republicans and has repeatedly spoken out openly against key initiatives of the president. The conflict became particularly clear when Massie declared that Trump had no legal basis for strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities without congressional approval. Massie also refused to support Trump’s extensive tax and spending legislation. In addition, the congressman has long demanded a full release of the Epstein files, a topic that remains politically highly sensitive and is causing growing tensions within the party.

Only a few minutes after this attack, Trump abruptly changed tone and spoke about his personal future in the afterlife. Earlier statements in which he himself had expressed doubt about whether he would make it into heaven, he now retrospectively described as a joke. The media had taken his words literally and had not understood his humor. He had simply been joking, Trump said. At the same time, he stated that he did believe that he would probably make it into heaven. He might not be a perfect candidate, but he had done a great deal of good for perfect people. This combination of personal self-staging, political attack, and religious symbolism once again shows how closely Trump uses public appearances to personalize political conflicts. That a religiously oriented gathering becomes a platform for this illustrates the transformation of political communication under his leadership. While previous presidents used the Prayer Breakfast primarily to present national unity, Trump increasingly transforms the event into a forum for demands of loyalty and settling scores with critics.

Trump: “Mike Johnson is a very religious person. Sometimes at lunch he says to me, ‘Sir, may we pray?’ Then I say, ‘Excuse me? We are eating lunch right now.’”

Massie’s position represents the growing internal party resistance against Trump’s style of power. His demand for parliamentary control of military operations touches fundamental questions of separation of powers. The debate over the Epstein documents likewise brings back to the center a topic that creates considerable pressure for numerous political actors. Trump’s public insults show how strongly such demands are increasingly judged as personal disloyalty.

Today, Donald Trump also staged a religious renewal of the United States at the National Prayer Breakfast and announced that on May 17, 2026 he would hold a nationwide prayer gathering on the National Mall to rededicate America as “one nation under God.” While the president spoke of spiritual strength and presented religious unity as the foundation of political success, a parallel reality escalated that contradicts this claim. After fatal shootings of U.S. citizens in connection with ICE operations, nationwide protests occurred while the government defended the course of federal agencies. At the same time, foreign policy actions further intensified tensions.

Military operations against Venezuela triggered international criticism and raised questions about compatibility with international law. At the same time, Trump’s repeated threats to place Greenland under U.S. control by military means if necessary led to diplomatic crises with European partners and mass protests in Denmark and Greenland. The overall picture shows political leadership that promotes religious reconciliation while simultaneously advancing domestic violence conflicts, military demonstrations of power, and geopolitical escalations. This contradiction between moral self-staging and real political action shapes current criticism of Trump’s course and fuels accusations of political hypocrisy, but also of social hypocrisy in America.

At the same time, Trump uses religious rhetoric to stabilize his political self-image. The portrayal of his own achievements, combined with the idea of moral recognition in the afterlife, strengthens his message to supporters that political criticism is not only wrong but also unjust. The boundary between declaration of faith and political self-justification is becoming increasingly blurred.

Trump: “We brought back the word Christmas. It is being used again.”

The appearance makes clear that religious events under Trump have become political battlegrounds. Instead of reconciliation, an atmosphere emerges in which loyalty is demanded and deviation is publicly punished. That this takes place before an audience originally intended for spiritual reflection underscores how strongly political culture and public discourse have changed, and how deeply America has also declined.